🍰✨

“As it turned out, Carroll had been taking groups of strangers to Bergdorf for a couple months before she’d divulged her decades-old secret about Trump. She’d created a guided Me Too walking tour she’d been advertising on her Instagram, called “The Hideous Men Tour.” It took place on the first and third Sunday of each month, and like mobster tours, or Sex and the City tours, or those of hidden architectural gems, hers was built around landmarks: buildings where famous men had allegedly violated unfamous women. Matt Lauer, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, and Trump all made appearances. But Bergdorf was the meeting spot only; Carroll made no mention of its significance. At Trump Tower, Carroll listed off the women who at the time had accused the president of sexual misconduct. She was not included.

This was classic E. Jean: She is in part a performance artist, always lightly prodding. She loves a gimmick and a covert message; she’s game for a clever bit of mischief, and her idiosyncrasies are often revealed to have some careful rationale. But the tour also mimicked the way she had danced with her past since the assault: stepping close and remaining far, repulsed and magnetized — driven by what had happened, pulling away from it, and coming back.⁠⁠”

—E. Jean Carroll’s Uneasy Peace, NY Mag